Public Transport Buses

Alongside Kenya's first toll road that is being built on pillars on top of an existing road, Kenya is also building a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system which is a dedicated bus lane, normally on the inside of the roads and thus accessed through footbridges that drop down into the road. There will be one added to the existing road under the toll road and also several others added to the other highways in Nairobi that are either three lane or two lane.

I am not sure if it will make a big difference to traffic even if there are enough buses (to start with there will not be many) and if they are well used, since they will just replace the existing privately operated buses. However it should let those who use the BRT save time in traffic jams, and maybe encourage other drivers to switch to public transport, if it is efficient, clean and orderly, which is not the case with the current privately operated buses (those often colourfully painted, privately funded and operated minibuses, though with licenses to operate on certain routes).

I was also going to indicate that those private buses are unsafe, but the irony is that sitting in that bus is generally fairly safe, it is those sitting into the cars surrounding those buses that might not be safe due to the crazy driving of those buses. 

One of the reasons they are so dangerous is that they tend to act as if they can create a special bus lane whenever they want. Usually into the oncoming traffic lane, but sometimes on the inside lane, sometimes on the pavement (or half on the pavement), sometimes on the outside, sometimes in between lanes, and often at junctions where they go in a lane to turn left or right (that does not have a queue), but actually they go straight on cutting in. Such behavior is dangerous to other drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians and is called called overlapping. In other words it is a long-term overtake manouver where there is no gap in front to overtake into. 

The most dangerous aspect of it is when it is in a lane of oncoming traffic, which may initially be empty but then someone comes and the bus has to force its way back into its own lane, and the oncoming vehicle often has to brake dangerously whilst that happens. Ultimately though the bus has pushed in front of a few vehicles here or there to save it time, it of course has delayed those behind it (in private vehicles, so maybe the bus drivers feel they have a moral right to do that since they are ferrying more passengers and of lower class), but it normally messes up the traffic coming the other way especially badly which otherwise would not have any traffic.

Slowly the BRT is coming together, which is great, but I think all of us wish that of greater priority should be enforcing traffic laws against dangerous driving, in particular of the dangerous private buses (which are also immensely polluting belching out fumes because they are so old and do not invest in the bus itself). Still, it is nice to see the BRT stations slowly being built and it will be interesting to see how it works whenever it is launched!